Cheap internal laptop HDD

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Maromi

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I'm looking to upgrade my HDD in my laptop, since it's only 60 gigs.

This is what I'm looking for, ideally:

* 120Gb+
* SATA 3.0 Gb/s
* 5400 - 7200 RPM
* 16 - 32 Mb cache
* Quiet
* $50 and under (preferably under)

Does anyone have any good recommendations? I've been searching for a while, but I haven't been able to find anything that's exactly what I want. I'm not looking for anything amazing, and 120 Gb is more than enough for me. However, I'm really looking for a cheaper HDD, as this will just be for my media computer. If something doesn't match all the specifications above exactly, that's fine!

Thanks!
 
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To be honest, since you're wanting SATAII with 7200rpms, you're going to be hard pressed to find anything around $50 unless you catch a sale. Also, if your current HDD is slower than 7200 you'll notice quite a bit more noise and, depending on where the HDD bay is, more heat. Probably the easiest way to find a deal on one would be to subscribe to ResellerRating's Hot Deals e-mails. They send out a daily e-mail which usually contains a few good electronic deals.
 
Thanks for the information! I've never heard of that site until now. Gonna go ahead and subscribe. : )

I think I'll alter my specs a bit, then, and just go with the 5400. Is there really much difference?
 
Higher speed drives aren't well suited to a laptop's thermal envelope, unless you're talking about a behemoth DTR sort of machine that defies the spirit of the laptop concept.

You're also going to be hard put to find much of anything except closeouts for under $50. There is a basic cost to making a hard drive, regardless of capacity, that sets a floor on the entry level pricing.

I got a Fujitsu 120GB 2.5" drive from Fry's last year for $50 but that appears to have been due to their eliminating the product from their stock. The prices run higher now. In the current ad they have a 250 GB Seagate for $67 and a 320 GB Western Digital for $77.

Another thing to consider is obtaining the new drive as part of an external USB unit. This will make it simple to clone you laptop's drive to the new drive, then exchange their positions. This way you still get to use the original laptop drive as an external.

It may seem backwards, but finding a 2.5" external you can use in this fashion at a good price may be easier than finding just a drive for the same price if you focus on discontinued models.

Example: http://store.iomega.com/section?p=4...paign=en_us&utm_content=online_20090131_en_us
 
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